Outgoing bishops committee chair David Yoder of Partridge said the multiyear drafting process was initiated to define what the Beachy Amish believe.

“A number of years ago, there was a conservative element that began asking questions: ‘Are others in our constituency no longer doing our practices? Do they belong in the constituency?’ ” he said. “We’ve taken a journey to find who we really are. We’re asking what defines us, what makes us significantly different from other conservative Anabaptist groups.”